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Lolth
Lolth is the Goddess of the Drow and a Demon Lord, in control of the 66th Layer of the Abyss known as the Demonweb Pits. She is in control of the Dark Seldarine. In her original life as an Elven Goddess she manipulated Corellon Larethian, Fenmarel Mestarine, and Gruumsh, inspiring the others to conspire against one another. When she was discovered trying to poison Corellon after his tenuous recovery from battle with Gruumsh (after he was revived by Sehanine Moonbow), Araushnee, who now called herself Lolth, retreated with all the elves that would follow her deep underground, where she lived in the material plane before carving out her own portion of the Abyss. There was a one year period where Lolth ceased answering prayers and did not leave the Demonweb Pits. This time is called The Silence. Worship The worship of Lolth is the primary and ultimate focus of Drow society and the society is set up in such a way that it self-corrects against those who would question her teachings. Drow are taught to undercut and undermine one another, to always be suspicious, and to seize power wherever possible and so the heavy infighting prevents those with new and dangerous ideas from ever getting ahead (and usually ends with them dying in the torture pits). Most of the high clerics of Lolth are female (with a select few male-aligned among them who are exceedingly rare). The rituals are completed in dark rooms with dark vestments or often no vestments whatsoever and involve sacrifices of blood and treasure to appease their queen and beseech her for recognition and power. Most rituals involve secret phrases uttered in Abyssal and a great many involve torture with strange poisons and sometimes the creation of driders or chitine through use of terrifying concoctions. For most drow in the clergy of Lolth, religious power often leads to political power. There are two major orders that splinter from the main organization of Lolth's church. The Order of Spiders (the Militant Myrlochar) are an elite group of fighters who use the tabard of a spider and are almost exclusively males born to high-priestesses that answer directly to the Matron Mother (the leader of any Drow city and one who can commune directly with Lolth). The members of this organization would be some of the only males considered for priesthood and are generally used in high-risk missions with no regard to their survival. The Handmaidens of the Spider Queen involve themselves in ensuring the purity of Drow society and hold no ties to the cities they live in and keep no connections or tethers to the places they pass through. They are semi-nomadic, spending up to two years in a city at any given time before moving on to the next Drow city. In most cases they harass and persecute followers of Vhaeraun and Ghaunadar, but they have been known to execute entire cities who have failed to keep in the good graces of Lolth. Relationships Lolth is a mother to both Eilistraee, Vandria, and Vhaeraun but has often been antagonistic with the three of them. Eilistraee is known to have found comfort in the company of Sehanine Moonbow and Vandria refused to join the Dark Seldarine altogether. Eilistraee is mostly seen as foolish by the Spider Queen and has no capacity for ever being a threat to her influence. Vhaeraun's church was amusing to her at first, but his approach to the Drow runs counter to everything she believes in and his spies have undermine enough of her cities and cults that the destruction of entire cities has been necessary. The chaos it creates has been intoxicating but the disrespect can not stand. Ghaunadaur was feared to be a possible threat when he first left the Dark Seldarine, but his message seems to be mostly ineffective. Lolth permits him passage through her domain as mostly a folly. Lolth payed little mind to the other members of her court and indeed of other pantheons other than the other Elven deities who she despised. She was a definite enemy to Gruumsh as well. She has a tenuous alliance with both Malar and Loviatar, and had in the past assisted Kiaransalee in killing and deposing Orcus in an attempt to spread the influence of the Drow and taking over his realm (which was successful until his resurrection).